


Perpetual Emotion

by tipplerdoeswords



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self-Aware
Genre: Benrey breaks the laws of the universe, Carnot is rolling in his grave, Everyone Freaks Out, Fluff, Gen, Horror, This fic idea gave me real fear, Yes you can do both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26115130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tipplerdoeswords/pseuds/tipplerdoeswords
Summary: Bubby had asked Benrey to make a perpetual motion machine as an experiment two weeks ago. The older scientist had explained entropy enough to make Benrey dangerous.Benrey had solved the problems of friction, heat loss, imperfect surfaces, radiation, partially elastic collisions of gas molecules, and gravity by inventing a totally new kind of matter and forcing it to be perfectly still.
Relationships: Background Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 10
Kudos: 105





	Perpetual Emotion

**Author's Note:**

> kind of a continuation of my fic here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26058136  
> but you don't need to read it unless you want relationship context

Gordon Freeman wasn’t a brave man, but at some point he got used to the fight or flight response and started treating it like a normal part of life. Apparently that was called trauma, and Gordon was working on it with his therapist but for now it was what it was. There was always the reasonable doubt that Benrey would turn evil again and Gordon wanted to be prepared for that.

He wasn’t prepared for the bloodcurdling scream that echoed from the basement of Coomer’s house and Gordon was on his feet and looking for a gun before he realized what he was doing.

Bubby, Coomer, and Benrey had disappeared into basement an hour ago for important experiments that Gordon was not a part of. Gordon had been rereading Animorphs, since Coomer had the full collection, when he heard the agonized sound. 

Gordon flung away the colorful paperback and sprinted for the staircase. He almost twisted an ankle going down the steps and crashed through the door to the lab.

It didn’t look too bad, at first glance. Benrey was leaning idly against one of the lab tables, phone dangling in one hand, head turned to face Gordon in surprise. Bubby had even forced the former security guard to wear a lab coat, and the white cotton accented the maroon pants he wore underneath.

Bubby was hunched over a computer, gnashing his teeth and pounding his fist on the desk. Coomer was huddled against the far wall, a blank look in his eyes as he stared at an object on the counter. Gordon followed the line of Coomer’s gaze and saw small metal object in a glass case.

Gordon caught his breath and stepped further into the lab, heart pounding. No blood, no aliens, no enormous Benrey. Just a very ominous moving device that Coomer was clearly terrified of.

Bubby tugged a hand through his grey hair and rounded on Gordon with such ferocity that Gordon raised his hands to show he didn’t have a weapon.

“I heard a scream. Is everything okay?” Gordon asked.

“It is not!” Bubby stomped over to Benrey and attempted to shake the oblivious alien by the shoulders. “Your idiot boyfriend here made a perpetual motion machine that violates the laws of thermodynamics and is very possibly going to annihilate the Earth.”

“You told me to.” Benrey muttered, unimpressed by the bony hands on his lab coat collar.

Curiosity got the better of Gordon and he came closer to the glass case.

It was a simple piston cylinder suspended in the middle of the container, cheerfully chugging back and forth. The crank wasn’t attached to anything. Gordon scooted between the tripod Bubby had set up to take video of the device to place a hand on the case. On closer inspection, it looked more like clear plastic and was room temperature.

“Maybe it’s really efficient but it’ll gradually slow down.” Gordon said.

“Oh, that’s what you would think.” Bubby snarled, eye wild. The scientist let go of Benrey and raised a shaky finger to point at the silvery device resting on the lab bench. “We’ve had it for eight days and if anything it’s getting _faster_.”

Gordon shivered. “There has to be some power source in another dimension or something.”

“Nope.” chimed in Benrey. “I gave it a push to get it started and haven’t done anything since. Don’t really get why the oldies are freaking out.”

Coomer was still motionless in the corner, instinctively as far from the piston cylinder as possible. His eyes were stretched wide, following the steady rotation of the crank.

“Benrey, don’t just stand there. You need to stop it so we can figure out what’s going on.”

Benrey rolled his eyes. “I can’t stop it. That’s the whole point. They wanted me to make something that would keep moving forever.”

Gordon closed his eyes and massaged his temples. He shouldn’t be mad at Bubby and Coomer for the reasonable request of something so ridiculous. It was physically impossible to make a perpetual motion machine and he still wasn’t convinced the device wasn’t running on weird alien technology.

Bubby and Coomer were serious scientists though. No doubt they had poked and prodded at the device while asking Benrey all sorts of questions.

The prickle of belief was starting to build in his brain. Gordon shook his head. No. It went against everything he had spent years paying exorbitant amounts of money to learn about. This was a weird eldritch thing that Benrey didn’t have the capacity to explain.

“Would you, uh, excuse us for a moment?” Gordon looped his arm around Benrey’s and tugged gently towards the lab exit.

“Take it away.”

They all looked at Coomer, who had spoken in that familiar strangled whisper.

“I’m not sure if—“

“Take it with you.” Bubby insisted. Gordon flinched when Bubby practically flung the case at Benrey, who caught it deftly with one hand. Apparently it was lighter than it looked.

They ascended the staircase and stood awkwardly in the foyer for a moment. Gordon couldn’t help glancing at the machine still plugging away under Benrey’s arm.

“Should we go home?” Benrey asked. “They were like, freaking out more than I’ve ever made them freak out.”

“Yeah, yeah that’s a good idea. I need to grill you in the car though. Why were you doing science with Bubby and Coomer? You should have told me that you made this thing.”

“Gordo’s jeal-ous.” Benrey mocked.

“I’m not! I’m worried and kind of confused!”

They got into the car and Gordon started his barrage of questions. As he slowly pieced the story together, his grip on the steering wheel got sweatier.

Bubby had asked Benrey to make a perpetual motion machine as an experiment two weeks ago. The older scientist had explained entropy enough to make Benrey dangerous.

Benrey had solved the problems of friction, heat loss, imperfect surfaces, radiation, partially elastic collisions of gas molecules, and gravity by inventing a totally new kind of matter and forcing it to be perfectly still.

Benrey had not heard of unstable equilibrium. Benrey’s idea of protection was a simple plastic shell that kept the air from interacting with a material that would instantly detonate and wipe out the earth. Also it violated the second law of thermodynamics, which was somehow much worse.

“You’re not driving back to our place.” Benrey noted, as Gordon sped down the freeway.

“We’re going to Tommy’s house.” Gordon wiped his hands on his pants and passed another car.

“Cool.”

Gordon didn’t know what Tommy was thinking when he and Benrey practically beat down his front door. Any previous, unimportant thoughts, were wiped from the tall scientist’s mind when Gordon explained the situation.

“D-Dr. Freeman, I’m gonna call my dad.” Tommy stammered. He fumbled for his phone and hit the emergency number. “Oh no…please pick up please…”

Benrey secured Tommy’s Nintendo Switch and put down the perpetual motion machine on the coffee table. The alien curled onto the couch while Gordon desperately followed Tommy around the living room.

“Dad? It’s an emergency. Yes I’m at my house, Dr. Freeman and Benrey brought something over that’s really dangerous and doesn’t make any sense. Okay. Okay, I’ll be in the backyard if you need me.”

Tommy hung up and rushed away before Gordon could ask what the G-Man had said. He barely had time to catch his breath before he heard the telltale air wobble of the agent’s arrival.

“Jesus fucking Christ.” said the G-Man in his signature deadpan voice, golden eyes wide and horrified as he stared at the device on the coffee table.

“Yep.”

“He _created_ this and brought it into our world?”

“Uh huh.”

Benrey waved from Tommy’s couch where he was playing Mario Odyssey. “I’m right here, you know.”

“This is…very interesting Dr. Freeman. Thank you for notifying my son who in turn notified me. I will take this object off your hands and deal with it appropriately.”

They heard a distant, drawn out howl of agony from the backyard. Tommy was not taking the news that thermodynamics was a lie very well.

The G-Man gingerly picked up the metal case, holding it away from his body with barely concealed dread. Gordon felt the urge to sneeze, and when he looked up, the G-Man was gone, taking the machine with him.

He didn’t feel relieved. Everything was wrong and the weak grasp Gordon had on reality through science was failing.

Benrey scooted over to make room as Gordon thumped down next to him on the couch, shell-shocked. Who knew when Benrey would accidentally cough up another one of those things?

“It was pretty hard to make, I’m not going to do it on accident.”

Gordon blinked. Did he say that out loud?

“You’ll forget about it in a few days and hopefully we’ll be allowed back at Coomer’s. Humans are good about thinking away things that don’t make sense.” Benrey added.

Gordon let himself fall back against the sofa, still disoriented. He stayed silent when Benrey sighed and patted him on the shoulder. He was never going to let Benrey do science again.

**Author's Note:**

> This is some freaky stuff you guys. Remember to always treat your sci-fi with great respect.


End file.
